The blackberries are beginning to ripen here!

My wife and I picked around 5 quarts of blackberries before breakfast this morning. We're just starting to get some good ripe ones.

If it is cool some night next week I hope to get some more and then again next weekend.

We're having cobbler tonight.

-Dan

Sat Jul 16, 2005 10:32 am

Blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice-cream is a favorite dessert. Dan

Re: The blackberries are beginning to ripen here!

Sun Jul 17, 2005 3:23 pm

pgmrdan wrote:My wife and I picked around 5 quarts of blackberries before breakfast this morning. We're just starting to get some good ripe ones.

If it is cool some night next week I hope to get some more and then again next weekend.

We're having cobbler tonight.

-Dan

Cor you'r lucky the bees have only just this weekend discovered ours, I can't see any fruit arriving for at least another 3 weeks, If we don't get any rain they won't be very big this year.
We make Blackberry and apple jelly/jam and blackberry tip wine and blackberry fruit wine,Good ole tackle!!
Pat

Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:12 am

Picked a gallon and 1/2 of blueberries 2 weeks ago. froze enough for cobblers all winter and made one for supper desert that night Still had some for fruit in our ceral in the mornings!

Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:12 pm

Well, it was anything but cool tonight but we got 7 more quarts!

Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:29 pm

Dan: You are breaking my heart. We had two nights of hard frost in early June just as the gooseberries were starting to fruit. Frost wiped out the garden and the gooseberry fruit. Replanted the garden then no rain. AND NO GOOSEBERRY PIE.

106 degrees on the bank sign and 100 degrees in the shade on the front porch at 6 P.M. today.

Eugene

Sat Jul 23, 2005 11:09 am

Ahhhh! Gooseberries!

Of everyone I know that has tried gooseberries it seems they either like them a lot or hate them.

I assume you like them. That makes about 3 people, including me, that I know of that like gooseberries.

I plan to plant some when we get moved out to our land but my wife keeps asking, "Why?"

I also want to plant some persimmon and some pawpaw trees, but I'm not sure if either of them will do well up here. I need to look into them some more.

Sat Jul 23, 2005 12:16 pm

Persimmon and pawpaw trees do well in central Missouri. The Missouri Conservation Dept has their own nursery and sells trees every spring. Their prices are very inexpensive compared to commercial nurseries.

This past spring Mo Conservation sold blackberry plants. Another idea for your property. Blackberry plot. A family west of Linn, Mo. planted about 1/2 acre of blackberries. They sell the berries and also do a you pick your own for price. Their location is ideal for a you pick you own, along a major highway.

You could start your own winery. Grape growning and wine making is a very big commercial enterprise in this area.

If you like asparagus prep the patch this fall, plant next spring. If you like asparagus, make it a big patch.

Just trying to help you out.

Eugene

s

Sat Jul 23, 2005 4:41 pm

Yes, asparagus is on my garden list along with okra. Gotta have both of them. It's surprising how many people up here don't know what okra is.

Central MO is where I used to eat persimmons and pawpaws.

For our berry plot we're going to have blueberries, blackberries, and gooseberries.

Sun Jul 24, 2005 6:53 pm

Get the asparagus bed ready because it takes a couple of years befdre you can pick but it lasts 20 years.

Bill

Sun Jul 24, 2005 8:23 pm

Gooseberrys -- hmmm wonder which - wild or cultivated.

When I was growing up in Timmins in Northern Ontario, the elementary school I went to - Pinecrest Elementary had a wild gooseberry patch out back - probably about 1 acre of gooseberry bushes -- highbush - 5 and 6 foot bushes, well at least to a kid..

Now them was small, green and tart. Put a pucker on yer puss faster than a turped cat's butt hustled down the street... I really loved them wild gooseberry's, never did get used to the cultivated ones though -- too big and too fat

Still haven't got a clue what persimmons are or paw paw's.. and okra - what is that??? not much chance of it gettin on my plate - what I have seen in the grocery store is either pretty yucky colour or is in a can -- not for me...

Sun Jul 24, 2005 8:51 pm

Gumbo is another name for Okra. It is sort of Italian pepper shapped, filled with seeds like pepper and with a almost jelly like covering when cooked. If you can not tell I like it. Many can't understand why a DAMMEDYANKEY would but I do.

Bill

Tue Aug 02, 2005 2:32 am

beaconlight wrote:Gumbo is another name for Okra. It is sort of Italian pepper shapped, filled with seeds like pepper and with a almost jelly like covering when cooked. If you can not tell I like it. Many can't understand why a DAMMEDYANKEY would but I do.

Bill

Okra is a vegetable you put into Gumbo. My wife makes a mean Gumbo. Seafood Gumbo is my favorite, but she makes a good chicken and sausage Gumbo too. I like okra any way you can fix it. I eat some small ones as I pick it. (which I am going to do this morning) You can slice it up and smother it down in a skillet, or smother it with tomatoes, or boil it whole. My favorite boiled is when she puts it on top of the peas when they get almost done and boil it with the peas. They stay on top and she just scops them off and puts them in a plate.
I've heard of Gooseberries and PawPaws, but don't recall ever seeing any. We make a lot of Mayhaw jelly and strawberry wine. The Blackberries didn't do anything this year.

Tue Aug 02, 2005 9:19 am

We have asparagus with nearly every meal from mid-June till now, when the shoots begin to get small. We allow it to go to ferns to nourish the root system in preparation for next year. My patch is about 13 years old. I understand there are documented asparagus beds that are over a century old.

I've had terrible luck with my okra this year... I have only one surviving stalk. It's just beginning to bear. I'll prefer it breaded and fried.

My daily walks include a stop in the garden to pick peppers and eat them on the spot. I have to keep ahead of them since they get hotter if they stay on the plant too long. I prefer them a little hot, but I'm not into pain.